The Consti preme law. tion of the Constitution should be as valid against the United States as under the Confederation; that the Constitution, and the laws of the United States made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made or to be made under the authority of the United States, should be the supreme law of the land; and that the judges in every State should be bound there- tution the su by, despite anything in the constitution or the laws of any State; that the senators and representatives of the United States, and the members of the several State legislatures, and all the executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several States, should be bound by oath or affirmation to support the Constitution; but that no religious test should ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States. The Seventh and last Article provided that the ratification of the conventions of nine States should be sufficient for the establishment of the Constitution between the States so ratifying the same. Ratification. suffrage. It has been said that Congress purposely avoided establishing a uniform rule of suffrage throughout the Union. In the early settlement of the coun- The rule of try the conditions imposed upon suffrage in the different colonies were of great variety. The New England colonies generally seem to have regarded themselves, not as open communities into which anyone might enter who chose to come and behave himself, but as corporations in which regular members alone had any share. Even in colonies more hospitable to foreigners, the qualifications for suffrage were numerous and often exacting. At the South, generally, no Indian or negro, even if otherwise qualified, could vote. In at least two colonies, Jews could not vote. The usual voting age was twenty-one years; but in two colonies the agelimit was twenty-four years; while in two it was apparently fixed below the standard. Religious qualifications existed in many colonies. Quakers were excluded in a few colonies, and Roman Catholics in more. Property qualifications also were usual. At one time in Rhode Island not less than £400, or £20 annual income, was required. Sometimes land-say fifty acres-was necessary, with or without "a house twelve feet square." In other cases the qualification might be either land or money. In some colonies the estate must be in fee ; in others, an estate for life sufficed; in others still, an estate for the life of the voter's wife would answer. The foregoing instances will give an idea of the extent and variety of the qualifications for full citizenship in the early colonies. By the time the Revolution broke out, these had been not a little reduced and simplified; but there remained differences enough to make it eminently desirable that the Constitution should avoid the imposition of an uniform rule of suffrage. This was effected by the adoption of the provision stated above. CHAPTER IV RATIFICATION AND THE INAUGURATION OF THE GOV ERNMENT Difficulties Attending Ratification-Pennsylvania and the Smaller States Promptly Accept the Constitution-Grounds of Opposition in the Larger States-Absence of a Bill of Rights-"The Federalist "-The Tories Support the Constitution-The Massachusetts Convention Ratifies, 187 to 168-Maryland and South Carolina Join the Union-New Hampshire, the Ninth State, Accedes-The Constitution Formally Accepted-Great Importance of Securing, also, New York and Virginia-The Conventions in those States-The Constitution Fiercely OpposedGeneral Consent to the Subsequent Adoption of Amendments in the Nature of a Bill of Rights-Virginia and New York Finally Ratify, the Latter, 30 to 27-North Carolina and Rhede Island Stay Out-The Government Organized-George Washington Chosen President-John Adams, Vice President-Congress Assembles, March 4, 1789: No Quorum until April 6thInauguration of Washington, April 30th-The Beneficent Influence of Washington in the Establishment of the New Government-Extent of the United States: Population-The Western Colonies The State of the Arts-Agriculture the Predominant Occupation of the People-Reasons for the High Productive Power of the United States: A Vast Breadth of Virgin Lands; Popular Tenure of the Soil; the Cultivating Class not a Peasantry-The Remarkable Mechanical and Inventive Genius of the People: The Genesis of this Trait Explained. THE national principle had, as we have seen, triumphed in the Convention of 1787; but every one of its successive victories had lost the new Constitution some supporter in the Convention; while, in the wider field of the country at large, alike the concessions made by the dominant party of the Convention and the most characteristic features which they introduced into the Constitution had alienated large numbers who, in a general way, were prepared to say that they were for a real and permanent union, but did not relish one of exactly this kind. The question, whether the instrument presented to the States on September 17, 1787, could possibly secure the ratification of the needed nine States, was Doubts as to enveloped in grave doubt: that a unanimous ratification. ratification could be obtained no one probably imagined. It is related, how truly one cannot say, that Washington, on laying down his pen after signing the Constitution, remarked to those around him. "Should the States reject this excellent Constitution, the next will be drawn in blood." Several of the States promptly accepted the Constitution: Delaware, the smallest State, first of all. PennThe small sylvania, under the lead of James Wilson, States accede. who had contributed largely to the formation of the Constitution, came next, though here strong opposition was manifested from the great interior highland district. Then followed New Jersey, by a unani mous vote; then Georgia and Connecticut. All but one of the foregoing, it will be observed, were among the smaller States, to which an immense concession had been made in the matter of equal representation in the Senate; and which had, therefore, most to hope for and least to fear under the proposed new government. In Georgia the argument for ratification had been greatly strengthened by the fact that the larger part of the present State was held by powerful Indian tribes, whose illrepressed hostility made the existence of an effective. government very desirable for the white inhabitants. Thus far the work of ratification had gone on swimmingly; but all this proved nothing; promised nothing. The real struggle was to come. Nearly all the re maining States were doubtful. Many political reasons, many personal forces, opposed themselves to further ratification. The more important of these will be sufficiently intimated in what will be said regarding individual States; but one general ground of opposition requires to be stated. Rights. Among the strongest objections, urged sincerely by some, urged by others as a cover to more real reasons, was the absence from the Constitution of a proper Bill of Rights, that is, a body of express provisions protecting the citizens from certain wrongs and Absence of abuses which had been made very familiar a Bill of to the minds of Americans through the history of the mother country. The traditions and modes of political thinking among our people were such as to make this omission from the Constitution, first, a real grievance, and, secondly and in a much higher degree, a taking popular objection. The cause of that omission had been found partly in the fact that the members of the Convention had been engrossed in adjusting the conflicting claims and interests of the different States and sections of the small, as opposed to the large, States; of the Northern, as opposed to the Southern, States; of the commercial, as opposed to the planting, States. In part, also, the cause of the omission of the desired guaranties had been found in the opposition of the Southern States. During the discussion in the convention of South Carolina, in justifying the absence of a Bill of Rights, General C. C. Pinckney said: "Such bills generally begin by declaring that all men by nature are born free. Now, we should make that declaration with a very bad grace when a large part of our property consists in men who are actually born slaves." In his "Journal of the Convention," Mr. Madison gives Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia : |